Legal Battles Flare Up Regarding Atlantic Coast Natural Gas Pipeline

By Brian Sewell

On Nov. 11, Dominion Transmission Inc., sent letters to 226 landowners in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia who have refused to allow surveyors onto land along the 550-mile route of Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The company says it will seek a court order allowing access if landowners refuse to cooperate.

But some legal experts say Dominion must first prove the pipeline serves a public need.

“It’s improper for a company just to assert that its project is for public use, without actually having had that determined,” Joe Lovett, an attorney with Appalachian Mountain Advocates, told Public News Service.

In September, residents of Nelson County, Va., filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming a Virginia law allowing natural gas companies to enter private property without a landowner’s written permission is unconstitutional. Like Lovett, attorney Neal Walters, who is representing the landowners, argues Dominion has not demonstrated the pipeline’s public use. Dominion has asked the court to dismiss that lawsuit.

The $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a joint project between Dominion Resources, Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas that would deliver natural gas produced in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to power plants and other industrial customers in the Southeast.

Duke Energy and Dominion recently asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin its environmental review of the pipeline, beginning with a public comment period.

After 20 years, Letcher County prison proposal is still alive, though obstacles remain

A $605 million proposal for a federal prison on a former strip mine site in Letcher County, Kentucky, championed by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, refuses to die, despite local opposition, a lack of support from the executive branch and numerous other obstacles.

Hurricane Helene devastated parts of Erwin, Tennessee. Photo by Abby Hassler

The Washout and Rebuild

For nearly two years, residents of Unicoi County, Tennessee, have had to make do without a hospital after Hurricane Helene destroyed the rural hospital. Ballad Health, which owns the hospital, broke ground on a new location — in another floodplain — in August 2026.